


Not Your Average Fairy Princess

by rhysiana



Series: Samwell Faculty AU [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College Faculty, Children are irrational and loud, Costume Malfunction, Domestic Fluff, Future Fic, Halloween Costumes, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:18:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8339581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysiana/pseuds/rhysiana
Summary: The difficulty in choosing the right Halloween costume is not to be underestimated. As Dex and Nursey's daughter makes very clear. At the top of her lungs. Can Aunt Lardo save the day?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is in the Samwell Faculty AU, the main body of which will post on Nov. 1, 2016 for the Check, Please! Big Bang. However, all the Nursey/Dex stories are side-fics to the main story, so you're not missing anything. For the story of how they adopted their daughter, see "Now Your Mess is Mine," the previous story in this series.
> 
> Written for Day 3 (costume malfunctions) of the Check, Please! 13 Days of Halloween fic-a-thon.

“NO!” shrieked Siobhan, at a volume Derek had not, at an earlier and more innocent time in his life, previously anticipating coming out of such tiny lungs. “NEVERRRR!”

Derek shot a look at Will from where he was kneeling on the floor in front of their daughter, but his husband, of course, looked completely unfazed and, if anything, mildly amused.

“This is why I said a trial run was a good idea,” Will said.

Derek sighed. “Siobhan, sweetie, you’ve been really excited about being a dinosaur for weeks now. Look how cool your costume is!” He pointed encouragingly toward the mirror. She only cried harder. She was beginning to sound slightly hysterical.

“I think maybe it’s lunchtime,” Will said mildly. He leaned over and pulled a pack of Magic Markers out of the drawer of the end table next to the couch. “Here, let her color while I deal with that.”

Derek nodded and set about extracting Siobhan from the apparently now completely unacceptable Halloween costume she had been bouncing off the wall about _literally_ the day before. He picked her up and settled on the couch.

“Shh, shh, it’s fine.” He stroked her hair until she stopped actively wailing. “Look,” he held up the markers like a talisman, “you can color.”

She grabbed for the box and moved off his lap so she could get at the line-art tattoo on his right arm. Once she was happily occupied, he flopped his head back against the couch cushions and dug his phone out of his pocket, hitting a number in his favorites list with his left thumb.

“Why are you calling me? Are you dying or something?” Larissa asked as she picked up.

“Sorry, I can’t text, Siobhan’s coloring.”

“Ah.”

“There was kind of a meltdown about the D-I-N-O outfit, and I was wondering if you could come over to help us figure out an alternative. Because as much as she hates that idea right now, she’s gonna hate not having anything to wear to school tomorrow more, and my ears can’t take it. We need your fairy godmother magic glue gun. I’m begging.”

“On it. Any idea what she wants instead?”

“Not a f-freaking clue.”

“’s cool, I’ll just bring everything.”

“ _Thank you_ ,” he said fervently.

“SHITTY,” he could hear her yelling, turned slightly away from the phone. “GRAB THE CRAFT BOX!” At a more conversational volume, “Be there in ten.”

“You are the finest of all humans I have ever known.”

“I know.”

Will returned to the living room bearing grilled cheese sandwiches and got Siobhan resituated on the floor next to the coffee table.

“Everything okay?”

“Larissa and Shitty are on their way.”

“Solved, then.”

“How are you so not freaked out about this?”

“She’s four. This is what four-year-olds do. Dare I suggest that you might need to, I don’t know, chill?”

Derek glared at him and took a bite out of his sandwich. “I hate you.”

“Uh-huh,” Will replied, stretching his arm along the back of the couch so Derek could settle against him. They were so comfortable they didn’t bother to move when a cursory knock sounded at the door. Their friends all knew to just come in.

“Hellooooooo,” called Shitty.

Siobhan jumped to her feet and flew down the hall. “Uncle Shitty!” she shrieked, and when she reentered the room, she was hanging upside down from his shoulder being tickled. Still shrieking, of course. Derek idly wondered what his before- and after-parenting hearing test results would have looked like.

“All right, Shits, set her down,” Larissa ordered, also settling herself on the floor next to a bin almost as big as she was. Siobhan was deposited in front of her. “I hear we have some serious business to discuss,” Larissa said gravely.

Siobhan nodded, equally serious now.

“So tell me, what do you want to be for Halloween?”

And thus ensued an epic two-hour-long bargaining session over colors and sequins and glitter and tulle, and who would even have suspected Larissa had a sewing machine that small in there? In the end, Siobhan emerged from her room and twirled around with her hands in the air.

“Look!”

“Wow, honey, you’re such an amazing…uh…” Derek was pleased to see even Will, who always acted so unflappable about all child-related things, was floundering here.

“Carnivorous, fire-breathing butterfly dragon,” Larissa supplied.

“Ah, of course.” Will nodded, face completely straight.

“Nice, brah!” Shitty exclaimed, holding his hand up for a high five. Siobhan jumped up to give it to him, electric purple wings fluttering behind her.

“Thank you,” Derek mouthed at Larissa over Siobhan’s head.

Larissa just smiled serenely.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this based on one of my niece's early Halloweens? Yes, although I don't actually remember what costume she ended up with. It was mostly magenta, though, and definitely involved being at least part dragon. She's also the one who inspired "NEVERRRRRR" as an intensifier of "no." Please think relaxing thoughts for my sister-in-law.
> 
> Also, that tattoo that Siobhan is coloring is described, along with Dex's, [here](http://rhysiana.tumblr.com/post/145863042588/rhysiana-i-keep-thinking-about-this). The relevant part: "Nursey’s tattoo (he has several others in our faculty AU already, this was just a new one): a peacock feather down one forearm. You can see the main part of the feather over most of the forearm, visible if he has his sleeves rolled up while teaching, but the end up near his elbow is actually cut to be a quill pen, dripping ink. On the inside of his upper arm, it has written the names of their kids." (They only have the one kid at the time of this story, but eventually they have two. Yes, we have thought about this way too much.)


End file.
